Postby Technomancer » Tue May 17, 2005 5:15 am
That's a shame really given how foundational it is to much of Western literature and thought. I know from marking student essays that those unfamiliar with Biblical ideas are likely to miss the the point a lot of the time when a writer alludes to it. I know that my own university offers a course on 'The Bible as Literature', and another on 'The Bible in Shakespeare'. I don't know if they do anything on Northrop Frye's work though.
The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
Neil Postman
(The End of Education)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge
Isaac Aasimov